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Abstract:
With Printed Electronics showing signs of long-anticipated growth, leading investor in the space Alexei Andreev, Managing Director of Harris and Harris, speaks to PE Futures about his hopes and expectations for the market.

60 Second interview with leading Printed Electronics Venture Capitalist

San Jose, CA | Posted on March 3rd, 2010

Ahead of the Printed Electronics Summit USA, event organisers PE Futures have spoken to the leading authority in Venture Capitalism for the Printed Electronics industry in a 60 second interview about the industry and funding.

Alexei Andreev, Managing Director of Harris + Harris VC Group is speaking at the Printed Electronics Summit USA. Download your brochure to see more of the thought leading line-up.

PE Futures: Tell us about Harris + Harris

Alexei Andreev: Harris & Harris Group, Inc. Is a publicly traded VC-firm (NASDAQ: TINY) exclusively focused on nanotechnology-enabled investment opportunities. We have been building our nanotech practice since 2001 and heading into 2010 we believe some of our more mature investments are being positioned for exits in 2010 and 2011.

PE Futures: How are you positioning Harris & Harris for the next year and what are you aiming for?

AA: We are making new early stage company investments because the valuations are very reasonable.

PE Futures: Where do you see the biggest market potential for Printed and Organic Electronics?

AA: We believe that there are several multi-billion markets which will be served by printed electronics companies: macro-electronics, displays, medical devices, and cleantech.

PE Futures: What are the most interesting breakthroughs of the past year?

AA: There have been multiple breakthroughs in printed electronics in 2009, I will list just three of them. First, the quality of printed conductive materials now surpasses ITO in terms of both optical and conductive properties. Second, printable silicon PV cells exceeded 18% in efficiency while silicon inks have been deployed in mass-production. Third, we have seen pilot volumes of printed silicon RFID tags which surpass traditional chip-based devices both in cost and performance.

PE Futures: Who and what do you think will be making headlines in 2010?

AA: We hope to see some of our portfolio companies on the front pages next year.

PE Futures: What is the main challenge still remaining for the industry?

PE Futures: Where do you see the printed and organic electronics industry in 5 years?

AA: Nevertheless, in 5 years I anticipate to see massive adoption of printed displays and display components, globally deployed printed RFID and anti-counterfeit tags, medical sensor devices, as well as printed selective emitters in silicon photovoltaics.

PE Futures: Is there anything stopping this?

AA: Moving atoms is much more difficult than moving electrons. It always takes more time and money to launch a printed electronics product than everybody initially expects.